CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

June 11, 2012June 11, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Texas Instruments Launchpad MSP-EXP430G2 & Capacitive Touch Booster

This is a guest post about the low cost Launchpad MCU devkit. This kit was unveiled in 2010, but since I’d never written about this $4.30 development kit previously, I’ve accepted to publish the post below with slight modifications and amendments. You may be itching to get started with a micro-controller based project but held back because of the high cost of the development boards, and the complex nature of tools required. The good news is that Texas Instruments have come up with a development kit – including a board and the required development software tools. This tool is intended for beginners as well as experienced users. In fact, at under $5, the Texas Instruments’ LaunchPad gives you a complete environment in which you can get started with your projects. This LaunchPad Development Kit is a part of the Texas Instruments MSP430 Value Line series of micro-controllers. You can program, […]

June 11, 2012June 11, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

GeneralPlus GP3300 Cortex A8 Processor and Android Tablet Reference Design

I’ve recently come across Eken D70 Tablet which is a typical 7″ Android ICS tablet, except it’s product description shows a Cortex A8 chip called GP33003. After some research, I found that this chipset is provided by GeneralPlus (previously part of Sunplus). GP3300x application processor features a cortex A8 clocked at 1 GHz together with a PowerVR SGX531 GPU, and comes in 216pins LQFP package. This SoC integrates LVDS and HDMI, and the company told me that the GP33XX targets “higher resolution displays, but still keep the lower PCB cost, compared to its current competitors”. It also features an hardware video decoder and encoder (up to 1080p), and can handle a 720p full-duplex video conference. That’s about all the information I could get about the SoC itself. I’ll update this post If I find out more. The company also provides a tablet reference design (GP3300xA Tablet) with the following specifications: […]

ArmSoM CM5 Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC

June 10, 2012December 18, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

TechNexion EDM Modules: Open Software and (somewhat) Open Hardware ARM & x86 CPU Modules

TechNexion, a Taiwanese “embedded solution” company, was present at Computex 2012 showcasing their ARM & x86 CPU Modules and corresponding development kits. The company recently created the EDM Standard, an open hardware and software standard for x86 and ARM Computer on Modules available under the creative commons share alike license. Their EDM modules come in three form factors: EDM Compact: 82 x 60 mm (ARM only) EDM Standard: 82 x 95 mm (ARM and x86) EDM Extended: 82 x 145 mm (x86 only) They have already designed 5 modules based on this standard: EDM-CF-iMX6 EDM Compact Module powered by Freescale i.MX6 (solo, dual or quad) EDM-CT-AM437x EDM Compact Module powered by TI Sitara AM437x (single core Cortex A9) EDM-SF-iMX6 EDM Standard Module with Freescale i.MX6 EDM-ST-AM437x EDM Standard Module with TI Sitara AM437x EDM-XI-QM77 EDM Extended Module with Intel QM77 3rd generation i3/i7 core I could not find information about […]

June 9, 2012June 9, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Geniatech Enjoy TV Stick ATV100: Amlogic AML8726-M3 Android 4.0 HDMI Dongle

Geniatech showcased the Enjoy TV Stick ATV100 at Computex 2012. This is yet another HDMI stick running Android 4.0, but instead of being powered by AllWinner A10 like most others, it is based on AMLogic AML8726-M3 (Single core Cortex A9) clocked at 800 MHz. The device also comes with 1 GB DDR3 memory, 2GB NAND Flash and features 2 USB ports (Standard USB 2.0 Host + mini USB OTG), a microSD slot and a port for an IR extension cable. Contrary to all HDMI dongles I have seen, there is also an external Wi-Fi antenna, as you can see on the picture above. An InfraRed remote with 6 keys is also included. The first part of the video below is about Geniatech ATV1200, an Android 4.0 set-top box based on AMLogic AML8726-MX (Dual Core Cortex A9), and the part about ATV100 starts at 2:23. I think there is a misunderstanding […]

June 8, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

How To Create and Seed a Torrent in Ubuntu Using Transmission Command Line

You may have a server with limited (free) monthly bandwidth, but yet need to share some large files or files that need to be accessed by a large number of people. Instead of sharing your files via your HTTP server, you can share them via BitTorrent instead in order to hopefully save bandwidth. Here are the steps I followed on Ubuntu 11.10, but they should work with any version of Ubuntu, Debian and Mint. Install transmission client and daemon

sudo apt-get install transmission-cli transmission-daemon

1	sudo apt-get install transmission-cli transmission-daemon

Create a directory to share your files and .torrent files

mkdir ~/p2p

1	mkdir ~/p2p

Copy your file in that directory and create the torrent file with transmission-cli

transmission-create ubuntu.bin.7z -t udp://tracker.openbittorrent.com:80

1	transmission-create ubuntu.bin.7z -t udp://tracker.openbittorrent.com:80

Start transmission-daemon

transmission-daemon -c ~/p2p

1	transmission-daemon -c ~/p2p

That’s all your need to do. If you want to monitor transmission remotly via a web interface, you can instead run transmission-daemon as follows: transmission-daemon -c ~/p2p -a public_ip Where public_ip is the public ip of your computer. Alternatively, you could also […]

June 8, 2012June 8, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Texas Instruments Wi-Fi Miracast Wireless Display on OMAP 4470

A few days ago, Texas Instruments announced a Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Miracast Video Streaming Solution based on OMAP4470 and WiLink 7.0, and they said in their press release that they would demo the platform at Computex 2012. Charbax is currently there, and shot a video showcasing different use cases possible with Miracast such as multi-tasking while streaming and mirroring. This technology looks very promising, especially since existing devices based on OMAP4470 will be able to support it with just a software update. You’ll also need to have a Miracast compliant TV, but eventually you should be able to buy a Miracast HDMI dongle for your TV (instead of buying a new TV), which is basically the board used in the demo except they use cables. This technology could be a threat to the MHL standard. The only advantage of the latter is that you don’t need power supply as it will […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs abd SoMs

June 7, 2012June 8, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Texas Instruments Sells the MetaWatch, A Wearable Bluetooth 2.1 Watch Devkit For $139

I think there is a TI deal about once a month, and today Texas Instruments sells (via Digi-Key) a Pebble Watch clone device similar to Pebble Watch called MetaWatch which is based on TI MSP430 MCU and CC2560 Bluetooth host controller and was released last year. There are two models: Metawatch Analog ($139) Metawatch Digital ($149) Both models regular price is $203. The discounted price also includes free shipping, but you need to follow the instructions carefully. Although the Metawatch is supposed to currently support both Android and iOS, the model sold is the original one that only supports Android. Here are the specs of the digital Model: Compatibility: Most devices with Android OS 2.3 and up. Potentially any programmable device supporting Bluetooth 2.1 and up device with Serial Port Profile (SPP) connectivity. Case / strap: 3 ATM water resistant stainless steel, black or white replaceable genuine leather strap Display: Mirror polymer network […]

June 7, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

IAR Systems Releases Embedded Workbench for ARM Version 6.40

Earlier today, IAR Systems has announced the release of version 6.40 of Embedded Workbench for ARM. This new version introduces several new features, enhancements and optimizations. The enhancements include a new source browser and text editor, with functionality such as auto-completion, code folding, block selection, block indentation, bracket matching, and zooming. Word/paragraph navigation have also been improved. IAR Systems also enhanced the compiler with improvements to the stack usage analysis functionality that provides calculations of the maximum stack depth for each call graph root and new features such as support for C++ source code and recursion. A new linker directive check can be used to calculate the stack usage at link time to verify that the used stack space does not exceed the allocated memory. The inline assembler has also been improved and expanded with a large number of new operand constraints and modifiers. In a previous post “Green Hills […]